Victoria’s chief health officer is not convinced coronavirus was spread at Black Lives Matter rallies, despite a second protester testing positive to the virus on June 15.
Brett Sutton confirmed the young woman tested positive to COVID-19 after attending the June 6 rally in Melbourne’s CBD but it is “very unlikely” she contracted it there or passed it on to others.
“(She) took a great deal of care in terms of having a distance with others and I think is unlikely to have acquired it there given that there are a whole number of other places that this individual has gone to without PPE,” Sutton told reporters on Monday.
While he was “not convinced” there had been community transmission at the Black Lives Matter protests, Sutton urged anyone who has developed coronavirus symptoms to get tested.
“It’s really in that first week that people overwhelmingly develop symptoms, so any cases really should be out there now,” he said.
The woman was one of 12 new COVID-19 cases in Victoria on Monday, bringing the state’s total to 1732.
Seven of the new cases are linked to a family outbreak spread across households in Broadmeadows, Coburg and Pakenham, with 11 family members testing positive to the virus so far.
Among them are four schoolchildren, prompting the closure of Pakenham Springs Primary School and St Dominic’s Primary School in Broadmeadows.
Two other cases recorded on Monday were linked to a patient of Monash Health, one was a returned traveller in hotel quarantine and another case remains under investigation.
Despite the double-digit increase in new cases, Sutton remains confident restrictions will be eased on-schedule next week.
